Business of Baseball Research Committee

By SABR

Welcome to the Business of Baseball Committee!

The Business of Baseball Committee was founded in 1994 by the late Doug Pappas. Our mission is to study all aspects of baseball administration and off-the-field activity including economic, organizational, labor and legal issues.

1915 Federal League case files: The committee has made available scanned documents from the original filing of the 1915 Federal Baseball lawsuit against organized baseball. This is the civil case in which the Federal League of Professional Baseball Clubs sued both the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs and the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, as well as various teams and owners, over the signing of players already under contract in the former league. (The precursor to the famous 1922 Supreme Court decision in the Baltimore Baseball Club case.) In this anti-trust case, the Federal League claimed the American and National Leagues controlled baseball commerce. The case involved many of the leading baseball figures of the day, such as Charles Comiskey, August Herrmann, Joseph Tinker, Lee Magee, Cornelius McGillicuddy (Connie Mack), Charles Ebbets, and Charles Weeghman. Included in the records are affidavits, contracts, exhibits, petitions, notices, complaints, memorandums, and the judgment. The scanned documents represent nearly 2,000 pages.

Newsletters: The committee also publishes the Outside the Lines newsletter semiannually. To find current and past Business of Baseball committee newsletters, click here.

Announcements: To sign up for email announcements from this committee, click the "Announcements" button above, then click "Join Group" (). All SABR members are eligible to sign up for announcements from any committee.